A Call To Arms (Pt. 2)
A Call To Arms (Pt.2) Chapter II Friday, June 27, 1986 - 12:57 AM Emmett couldn't sleep, even with his spouse breathing on his shoulder as he slept. He was thinking heavily, his mind wavering on and off the topic like a drunkard trying to balance on a rail. Of course, there were no drunkards in Hill Valley; Edna made sure of that in 1975. In 1977 came the ban on PDAs; in '78 and '79 came the hammer on dogs and drugs (except pharmaceuticals, due to their importance) And now, in 1986, the hammer once again is brought down on the Hon. Citizen Emmett Lathrop Brown, Emmett thought. With the Citizen Plus program about to be bartered nationwide, Hill Valley would become just another utopia. Utopia. A word for a place that doesn't exist. Yet, within the proper boundaries, Edna believed Hill Valley would become one. It defeated the purpose of the word, and Emmett believed, althought fearful of the consequences, that Edna defeated the purpose of existence. Tears welled up in Emmett's eyes and rolled down his face. "I'm sorry, my love..." he began, but he wouldn't allow himself to continue. He raised the pillow, and, with jarring force, brought it down on Edna's head and began to squeeze the life out of her. At first, Edna didn't notice, but then within a minute she was clawing at Emmett's face like a madwoman. One of her nails grazed Emmett's cheek, and he began to bleed. He didn't care, and he began to exert more downward pressure on the pillow. Within another minute, Edna's hand became perfectly still. By this time, Emmett was sobbing into the floor, his screams of internal agony deafened by the thickness of the carpet. The sound of glass breaking followed, accompanied with the sound of magazines being loaded into automatic assault rifles and doors opening and closing, obviously part of a search effort. Emmett quickly and hastily slipped on the Hawaiian shirt he planned on wearing come the morning, not caring to button it; he slid open the window, and, almost like a man possessed, climbed onto the roof. It had showered earlier that night. Emmett thought he'd fallen asleep after the pitter-patter had fallen silent at around 10:00. The roof was still unnaturally slick, and Emmett tripped and nearly fell to his doom below if not for the rain gutter acting as a foothold. A cluster of shingles descended and exploded. In his room, US military personnel brandished M16s and flashlights, scanning every square inch for signs of Emmett and Edna Brown. To his chagrin, Emmett could distinctly hear one cadet say "Wow, Brown iced the old broad. Gotta give him some credit." Emmett carefully shimmied across the rooftop, hoping to dear God that the gutter wouldn't spontaneously give way, prompting him to follow it to the ground. He wasn't thinking. He was just doing. The numerous buildings Hill Valley offered north of the courthouse made him feel as though he was in New York City. Finally, the inevitable happened. The metal gutter, under the stress of 150 lbs, twisted and detached from the house itself. Emmett spiralled down to the pavement below. When Emmett woke up, the cut on his cheek was trickling what he thought at first was warm tomato soup down his neck, rendering a dark spot on the collar of his shirt. His right leg was shattered in too many places to count. He inhaled, and exhaled, noting that his breathing was normal; however, he tried to get up, but he winced right back down in stabbing pain. He'd cracked 16 vertebrae into bonemeal, and he yelled for help, nothing came out. He hadn't hit his head hard enough to segment his skull, but he had edged a pretty nice rift into his temporal area. He'd fallen almost 2 stories and survived. Soon, Emmett was resolving he might have a free pass. The cadets surrounded him, their rifles ready and waiting to turn Emmett Brown into swiss cheese. However, one cadet left the group, running off and screaming for the medic.